drza44

I've read/skimmed most of this thread as my intro to this site, and I found the differences in POV interesting. I just read the first two books, and before coming here I would have been shocked to be told that people find Adolin particularly interesting. From my reading, he was a nice character to have and useful to the story, but pretty vanilla overall. He's a good looking prince that is a great fighter, loves his family, gets swarmed by the ladies but never really keeps them, and generally does what he feels is right (I've got no problem at all with him taking out Sadeas, and frankly it was heavily foreshadowed as the thing he was going to do at some point). Solid character, but not particularly interesting or someone that had all that much gravity for me. Obviously, Kaladin and Shallan are the main characters, so I'd expect them to be more fleshed out. But...well...they are more fleshed out. They're interesting. I vibe with them better. I saw someone keeping track of words, and one had like 240k and the other 180k, then there was a giant chasm until the next folks checking in around 50k? Yeah...I've got no problem with that. They're the main characters. Same thing happened in Mistborn, Elantris and Warbreaker...the two main protagonists got more words that everyone else combined. I'd frankly expect that to continue here, at least up until Book 5 (things may change after that). But again, I see nothing wrong with the two protagonists being the most fleshed out, being the most interesting, and dominating the word count. As for the actual topic, I really don't see much that recommends Shallan and Adolin. From a reader standpoint, I've already stated where my preferences and interests lie. But trying to separate from that as much as possible, there were trends that seemed clear to me as I read: 1) It's been mentioned somewhat sparingly in this thread, but I see huge parallels between the older and younger triangles. Down to the very words that Brandon uses to describe them (e.g. how Dallinar/Kalladin were too intense and thus scary as a love interest). Navani and Shallan are the brilliant, independent women, and Galivar/Adolin are the beautiful lead-princes. I felt like part of Brandon's reasoning in laying out the Dallinar/Navani/Galivar history was to point out that Navani didn't follow her heart and go with the more scary Dalinar, and ended up regretting it. It seemed unlikely to me that, in the next generation, he'd have Shallan repeat the same mistake. 2) Shallan and Adolin's interactions feel scripted. Shallan came into this NEEDING for the relationship to work, and went about doing whatever she could to make it work. She attacked it intelligently, and is doing her best to make it work. She was pleasantly surprised that he was so physically attractive, and he's a nice guy so she's got things to work with. But she never seems fascinated by him. He doesn't challenge her. She doesn't have much emotional response to him, at all. Now, in real life this could still lead to a relationship. Not every marriage has to be a roaring inferno. And there's still books to go, so maybe proximity and shared experience eventually bonds them together. But for me, as a reader...it's boring. And not boring in an "overused trope" kind of way, but boring in a ... where's the fun in that? kinda way. There's just no "there" there, to me, when it comes to something I'd want to read about, especially in the presence of all of the huge, dramatic events of the story. I was frankly meh on Vin and Elend in Mistborn, in large part because I found Elend just as bland, and the lack of chemistry between them made their interactions some of the hardest parts of the story for me to read. 3) Shallan and Kaladin's interactions feel genuine. There is no in-story necessity pushing them together, so their reactions would tend to be true to character. A lot has been spoken about their time in the chasm, and I agree that those were some of the most interesting scenes in the story to me. But their interactions were natural long before that. Shallan pulling the boot prank was unscripted, just cuz she felt like it at the time, and really seemed like something Syl would do if she were a person with her mischief. Shallan and Kaladin getting into the shouted insult match on their first re-meet was also a natural reaction from both characters. It actually worked against both of their interests in the story, but they drew emotional responses from each other and went with it. Kal's stereotypical annoyance/suspicion of her as a Light Eyes and her disdain for him being an over-serious bully were true emotions, and they actually expressed them to each other, communicated through it, and came away with changed opinions. With very few pages together, we've seen character chemistry (not directly implying romantic, more chemistry in the literal sense of the word...they react to one another.) that I haven't seen in many more pages of Shallan and Adolin. Further, that chemistry led to direct growth in their relationship, again in only a few pages together. All told, obviously, nothing has happened that makes either relationship a given or definite moving forward. And Brandon, as the author, can certainly develop the characters and relationships however he sees fit. And maybe he wasn't consciously putting in what I was taking from it. We'll certainly see. But to me, Shallan and Adolin is just dull. From what I feel like the characters are telling me, they're either a non-starter or else a generally meh plotline. Shallan and Kalladin, on the other hand, have produced an interesting pop in very limited interaction. It just seems natural, to me, that it'd be interesting see where that chemistry would lead if the author ever puts them in the same place for any period of time...